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Show CATHOLICISM THE REFUGE. An Able Paper on Catholicism By j Benjamin F. De Costa. I Relig-iouists in America are now di-j di-j vided it no two great camps, the Cath-j Cath-j olic and the non-Catholic. One camp is i held by a disciplined army, the other by discordant cohorts resembling a : mob.- The situation daily grows in j gravity. Few seem ot realize the fact, j yet we view a situation that never be- fore was witnessed in the history of the world. When too late, non-Catholics may realize the solemnity of the piesent times and recognize the blood-guiltinesn blood-guiltinesn incurred by Henry VIII., Archbishop Cranmcr and Luther in a?-saulting a?-saulting Catholic unity. Today nearly fifty millions of the population stand apart from both camps awaiting the j outcome of the struggle, so momentous to society and the' nation. . i NON-CATHOLICS CONVERT THE NATION, And they are resolved . that salvation snail noi come to the people through I the Catholic Churclu j In the meanwhile the example of mtii like Professor MoGiffcrt and Dr. IJillis in abandoning false associations is significant. sig-nificant. It proves that a!l are not lost to moral considerations; for it is notorious notor-ious that the hnnt-fty that would not do duty in a corrupt political party is ample for membership in not a few sc-.ts. wherein men remain false to conscience con-science for loaves and tishei-. Evciy departure of men like those mentioned is morally encouraging, but may any other significance be attached to such eases? is there any sign of a general movement for a revised cM'.fd. to meet on a low plane, a failing faith? Ye:, says the pttacher of Madison i Square, let u have a new creed, composed com-posed of a few of the "essentials." A "few" will answer it: but. on this ad- vice non-Catholics will find the desvent to Avernus easy. There is a wild un--cst. but A REVISED CREED DOES NOT MEAN UNITY AND PEACE. Therefore non-Catholics will be likely to remain in th condition desrriht-d by RiV-hop Henry Potter as the condition of the Episcopalian denomination, which, he laments, is one of a. congress of inlet in-let dependent bodies, withcut a In ad to think or a hand to act. 4oi. Lei- every attempt at unitv has signally failed, notably the Episcopalian Episcopa-lian Chicago-Lambeth plan, rudely repelled, re-pelled, by the recognition of the fact that the Episcopal body was simplv a part of a house divided against itself, and without the. right to suggest, much less eictate terms. There are those among nan-Catholics who hold that any plan not including Catholics would fail, ytt of corporate union there is no hope, since Catholics I could offer no compromise, being irre-j irre-j vocably bcumd by the terms imposed I upon them l.y Christ and the Apo.stle.'i. In the present attitude of nun-Cat. holL-M corporate union is an idle dream and the eoruliel will go on. What is the outlook? Will it be guerilla gue-rilla tactics against an organised army. J ambush against an open field? How I can divided non-Catholics meet and conquer an undivided Catholic host? I HE CATHOLIC CHURCH WAS NEVER SO STRONG, united and well equipped as t idav. It is perfectly loyal to its head, but recognizing rec-ognizing his lack of organization, the-non-Catholio often claim? and frequently fre-quently undertakes to say, that this is "a conflict he.rwe n Rome and Roj-son." Roj-son." and that Reason must avail. That is what the infidel tells the non-Catholic. This piay on "Rome and Reufin" is only rit to go with the campaign He which declares that "Rome is opposed to the RibltV The truth is that Rome is pre-f-.r.i-. i nentty the Church of Reason. Aquina-s j land all school mem and doctors prove i that reason is the handmaid of religion, j We hear Luther, the founder of Protestantism, Prot-estantism, v. ho nrraye d religion ; against iea.xm. bittei'y reproaching" the Catholics for their defer1:-? ef reien saying that Catholic "persons measure the will and work of God by co--:n." wljieh can do nothing else thin "blaspheme." "blas-pheme." as "reason is the devil's prostitute. pros-titute. ' Today, therefore?, as in Luther's- time and in the ase of Aquir.a?. ROME IS THE CHURCH OF EEA- j SON, ' and w!th the church of reason non-Catholics non-Catholics who intellectually are bank- J rupt cannot re;'ken. being wiio'ly want- j ing in those mental resources which j alone secure the favor of mankind. Non-Catholics svmply pamper the pride j of men by offering a choice cf one hundred hun-dred and thirty-two creeds while living, and brutally leaving the bulk of mankind man-kind to shift for themselves when dead; while the Catholic Church follows' them in faith and prayer into the great beyond. be-yond. As the result of three hundred years of occupation in this cou?Ury, the non-Catholic, has put the bulk of the population outside of aH re'igirus organization. What it has done for people in the undiscovered tountiy re- mains to be seen. j On the other hand, the Catholic Church is steadily growing in favor. As- .Mr. Mallock and Lord Mycau'a;-EhoW, Mycau'a;-EhoW, IT IS THE ONLY PERMANENT THING ON THIS EARTH. It is more and more a sunwise, being . able to meet the reUirious issue at a time when other agencies are failing. Abuie it is able to deal with science in religion and anticipate the need.-- of all mental activity. For the last two hundred hun-dred years the study of philosophy has been preparing" tne ' way for a complete vindication of the Real Presence, a truth now shown to be ee.'.ia'ly consonant con-sonant with the Rible and reason. Rome is the Rible church and t,he church of reason. Theological Rip Van Winkles mun wake up and discover the situation. Tho "Reformation" is dead, and Henry VIII ami Cranmcr j live only in the hundred thousand divorces di-vorces given in America in the last twenty yea.;;. In the meanwhile the Catholic Church i? the church of the family and of sacramental marriase. Peple who wart to protect their i daughters are educating them under i the care of the RIessed Virgin; and thus they will have daughters who wiil not be married by one judge' and unmarried un-married by another. Today one of the largest and most responsible denominations is wrangling and distressing itself about the eternal perdition of infants and heathens. On the other hand, the Catholic Church stands as ever the Church of Eterr.al Hope, calmly looking for the largest Vaults from the plan of salvation!" in iV'.-ordance with Aquinas, who holds that every soul born into the world receives grace sufficient for salvation, if not frustrated by opposition to light. This is the Church that non-Catholics propose to dissipate by grouping together to-gether "a few of the essentials" and shooting them up, so much vague sentiment, sen-timent, in the air. They would win America by divercing theology from religjon after the manner of the reformed re-formed scientist who proposes to cast mathematics out of r.s.i:ronomv end , bones out of the human body. Rut this is of no avail. The melancholy melan-choly empty benches on Sunday show , that non-Catholic thought cannot sat- J isfy minds reaching out after God. At ' last the people will . discover that if ' they want a religion they must find it in the Catholic. There is no conflict between "Rome and Reason," it is be- tween the Catholic Church and Ag- ' nosticism. Non-Catholiciscn is an ana- i chronism, withput insight, authority or head. For the noblest purposes of religion re-ligion it no longer exists. Like the j angle-worm chopped in pieces, it can I simply wriggle. It has .no logic, and I cannot answer the eues'tion, "What ( must I do to be saved?". . J t |